COVID-19: Calgary mask ban ends as provincial health measures are lifted – Calgary

Mandatory mask-wearing in Calgary will end when the province lifts its mask-wearing mandate. The decision came after a lengthy debate among city councilors on Tuesday.

As part of the changes to the law, children under the age of 12 will no longer have to wear masks in public indoor spaces, and repealing the law now depends on when the provincial government decides to lift the rule. intended to wear a mask, instead of setting a date.

Last week, The province has announced the changes for mask requirements, including no longer requiring children under 12 years of age to wear masks in public or in schools.

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That change at the provincial level sets it apart from Calgary’s mask law, which requires a minimum age of two.

The city’s law also doesn’t have a repeal date, while the provincial regulations currently have a targeted end date of March 1, subject to a continued downward trend in COVID-19 hospitalizations. .

“We are still in a mask regulatory environment. It applies at the provincial level, it applies at the municipal level,” said mayor Jyoti Gondek after the debate.

“March 1 is the day we will all consider whether there is some evidence that we should lift the masking mandate. Maybe it lasted past March 1, we don’t know.”

Gondek said she supports alignment with the province because of the difference in minimum age requirements.

The Council voted 13-2 to make changes to the official under the law with Councilmembers Gian-Carlo Carra and Kourtney Penner opposing.

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The effort to align the city’s mask rule with provincial health orders has been led by Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean, who introduced an amendment to the city’s law.

McLean said while he initially wanted to completely repeal the law To automatically bring the city under the provincial health rule, he chose to amend the existing law.

He added that health is the responsibility of the province, and urged the council to be consistent with last week’s vote on the local vaccine passport program.

“A majority of the council decided overwhelmingly last week that the city should not pursue its own vaccine passport and should be in line with the province; so let’s be consistent,” McLean told the panel. “We are not doctors, but there are many healthcare professionals in Alberta Health Services and they, along with the provincial government, have announced that as of March 1, masks will no longer be required. ask for more.”

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The Council’s initial vote on McLean’s proposal to set a shelf life for the mask shrank.

It passed in an 8-7 vote with Councilmembers Jasmine Mian, Raj Dhaliwal, Richard Pootmans, Jennifer Wyness, Courtney Walcott, Carra and Penner opposed.

Other councilors, including Penner and Wyness, have proposed the idea of ​​a later shelf life for illegal masks after easing provincial restrictions to give the council more time to assess the situation. epidemic.

Penner said she was unable to support changes to the law due to a lack of information.

“Let the children be children” is not science,” Penner said, referring to a line used by provincial officials.

“I think the caveat is that if we make data-driven decisions, we get the data and we also give time to see the data and the impact of the changes.”

As part of the vote to amend the masking law, city councilors also backed Gondek’s effort to ask the province to use the data to make decisions about easing public health measures. add.

Gondek said the council still has many questions about the province’s decision to reinstate health measures and hopes that information from the province and recommendations from its chief medical officer, Dr Deena Hinshaw, will help put out some answers.

“What I hope is to be able to get information from the chief medical officer and then, fully informed, raise our duty. That’s not how it turned out,” Gondek said.

“We’ve been thrown into an environment where (the province) has passed on something where, if we don’t agree, the personal responsibility they want us to take is all we have left.”

Calgary Emergency Management Director Sue Henry told the council that the lack of information from the province was part of the reason why the city government suggested linking up with the province.

“We don’t control the metrics, and we can’t present you with any other data that suggests a different metric,” says Henry. “We recommend that we align with the province.”